Japan knife attack: Suspect wrote of wanting to kill disabled people

Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old who had worked at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en facility in Sagamihara until February, broke in through a window early Tuesday morning before beginning his rampage, Kanagawa Prefecture officials said at a news conference.
The attack -- in which nine men and 10 women were killed, and 26 more people injured -- is Japan's deadliest mass killing since the end of World War II.
Satoshi Uematsu, the suspect of Tuesday's knife attack at a home for the mentally disabled, sits inside a police van as he leaves a police station in Sagamihara, outside Tokyo.
'Outrageous thing to say'
Uematsu turned himself in at a local police station around an hour after the attack began, carrying a bloodstained knife and cloth, officials said.
In a letter he wrote several months before the incident, seen by CNN, he said he had "the ability to kill 470 disabled people."
"I am aware that this is an outrageous thing to say," he wrote, adding that he dreamed "of a world where disabled people with severe difficulties socializing as well as severe difficulties at home are allowed to be peacefully euthanized."
Japanese national broadcaster NHK reported that he had been committed to an institution earlier this year to prevent him from "harming others" following the submission of the letter. He had resigned from his job when he was committed but was discharged in March.
Uematsu, who worked at the facility from 2012 until earlier this year, previously worked for a transportation company, and had trained to be a teacher.
Former colleagues said he was personable and good with children. Neighbors were shocked to hear of his involvement in the incident.
NHK also reported that he had had run-ins with the police -- last year he had fought and injured a man at a suburban Tokyo train station.
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